Neither z4root nor SuperOneClick is currently working on the Charge (though I'm sure someone will come up with a one-click method soon enough), but guess what - Gingerbreak sure does. Follow these instructions, and you should have root and full /system unlock on your Droid Charge in a few minutes. Credit goes to the Exploid Crew and unnamed testers.

No custom recovery, such as ClockworkMod or RA, is available yet, but it is surely going to arrive very soon.

Pros

Permanent root

Read/write access to /system

The bootloader is factory unlocked, so no additional fiddling is required

All Droid Charges survived testing

No data wipe is needed

Cons

Voids warranty

Could brick your phone if you aren't careful

Android Police and Team AndIRC disclaim all liability for any harm that may befall your device, including, but not limited to: bricked phones, voided manufacturer warranties, exploding batteries, etc.

The instructions below assume you already have a strong familiarity with adb command lines.

The instructions were created using Linux, but should work the same way on Windows, Mac, etc. You may require additional USB drivers on Windows - check with Samsung and Verizon if you can't see the phone in adb.

# cat /sdcard/su /system/xbin/su
/sdcard/su: No such file or directory

Justin Case

Typo on my fault,
These lines are wrong
cat /sdcard/su /system/xbin/su
cat /sdcard/Superuser.apk /system/xbin/Superuser.apk
and should be
cat /data/local/su > /system/xbin/su
cat /data/local/Superuser.apk > /system/xbin/Superuser.apk
Fixed in original post, tis what I get for late night tinkering.

I tried to contact you on freenode last night before I decided to write this up.

The APK simply wasn't working for us. Ran it on two different devices with no luck. After running a brand new phone, the sdcard became corrupted. I believe the sdcard corrupt was likely a fluke and unrelated to your app.

Raptor007

I read that Z4Root also works, is that the case?

http://www.AndroidPolice.com Artem Russakovskii

It wasn't working at the time of this writing, as the first sentence in the post says.

Moondrius

What drivers are you guys using? I am unable to find any on samsungs site and the fascinate drivers are not working.

jcase

Was done on linux, sorry I am unfamiliar with windows.

droidmark

I also had driver problems. Found a post on another forum that the drivers are actually on the phone itself, which will mount as a virtual CD drive when you first plug it in to USB (with USB debugging OFF). I still had problems, until I was able to get it to mount as a virtual drive, opened the "drive" and grabbed the USB driver package, which I then installed from the desktop. Now all is well and I have it rooted. The driver package is an 8.1MB .exe file which I can email if someone needs it.

Does anybody do this 3rd party? I'd like to try to maximize my new charge's capability, but I'm not familiar with the programs etc that are necessary to do it myself (and I don't want to kill my new phone...which would likely be the result). If not can anyone tell me how I might be able to adjust the outgoing email settings: fonts, font size, signatures. The factory defaults are terrible and aside from basic text changes to my signature I don't seem to be able to change them.

Oh, one last thing...I drive a ford and the music player automatically starts when I get in the car. Even if I'm listening to sirus or the radio (other that that it's pretty sick the way it works through the blue tooth though). Is there anyway I can stop this as the default setting?

Thanks for any help.

Burl

My last line was slightly different:

vold: 2382 GOT start: 0x000162e8 GOT end: 0x00016328

Anybody have an update on this?

jcase

Verizon issued a patch to prevent this method.

s

is there any way around the patch? trying to root now, having same problem: no #

http://www.polkadotninja.com sam

Looks like the ED2 update broke this method (thanks Verizon / Samsung). Looks like there's no way to root atm without using odin, more info in this thread:

... tried to install the Verizon Update for Samsung Droid Charge after rooting. Dind't work. Had to downgrade and root again :-P

aaron

Once you do this can you do a restore to go back to oem?

http://me.com robot pirate

This worked for me:

Steps to Root:

Part 1 Reset to ED1:

Open Odin, then pull the battery on your phone, hold volume down, and plug it into the computer to put it in download mode. Pick the tar.md5 file in the PDA section of Odin (NOT the phone section!) and then hit start, let it do its thing, unplug when it's done, and you'll boot into the Android recovery. Reboot and you're back in ED1. Then root via GingerBreak.

Block OTAs by renaming /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip to something like /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip.bak. Go back into the recovery by downloading Quick Boot from the Market and "Wipe cache partition" because the phone is very quick on downloading a copy of the OTA, caching it, and bothering you CONSTANTLY.

SmacRoc

I want to try this method but what tar.md5 file are you talking about using in part 1?

http://rootandroid.net Root Android

If a one click tool like superoneclick was out, things would have been more easier.

Brittany

Can someone please help me out, I need easy instructions on rooting my Droid Charge. I've never done it before and would like to without messing my phone up. Thank you :)

please send me detailed instructions on rooting my droid charge..I have tried once and it did not work..after rooting it do I need to update gingerbread also?? someone please help me out:) Thanks..[email protected]

This only worked on the initial firmware, it was patched in the first week. Try newer methods, look on rootzwiki or xda

Justin

Can i root my charge without a computer?

chuck u. farley

Easily Root my phone, it would be easier for a blind man with one leg to get to another planet on a broken skate board! I wonder how easy it is to brick the dam thing. nothing on how not to brick it though is there. probably instructions on how to brick it just to fuck you over.